1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to ribbons, bows, package decorations and the like, and more particularly to a machine that curls ribbons in order to make bows of such curled ribbons.
2. Description of the Related Art
Gift-giving is often associated with holidays and special events such as birthdays. In order to hide the gift that is being given, colorful and ornamental papers are often used to wrap the gift to hide any indication of it. Additionally, ribbons and bows made of ribbon are often attached to such wrapped packages in order to enhance the colorful, ornamental, and festive nature of the gift.
Ribbon often comes in rolls of various colors and widths. It is known in the art that the unrolled ribbon may be engaged manually over the back end of a scissors and curled by pulling the dull scissor end along the ribbon. As the ribbon is held in close quarters with the dull angled blade of the scissors, the ribbon takes on a curl that is attractive and decoratively ornamental.
This manual process can be tedious, especially when done on an industrial scale where thousands of ribbons need to be curled in order to achieve commercial ends. Additionally, such commercial need is present where several strands of ribbon are curled in order to make a curl bow, that is a bow made of curled ribbon.
If the task were performed manually, the expense and time involved might be prohibitive. While there are prior attempts in the art to curl and uncurl certain items, generally they are not well applied to the manufacture of curled bows.
The prior art reflects certain material dependency upon the material being curled in the use of nip rollers and the like for curling or uncurling paper, plastic, imitation cork, and even reconstituted tobacco, light weight cardboard, and other materials. However, the prior art does not reflect the use or provision of a machine by which curl bows can be made in a rapid and easy fashion such that the purchasing public can buy an attractive curl bow on a hang tag of several different varieties of ribbons in different colors and visual qualities.